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Tag Archive | pasty

Many of the omnivores in my life regularly bow down and praise the almighty “Steak Bake” as sold by a certain, famous high street “bakery”. I’ve never really understood the love of this particular pasty. Back in my meat-munching days I was always disappointed by the lack of filling – too much gravy and not a lot of anything else.

So, I was surprised to find myself fancying one the other day. So I made a couple. Using seitan. Oh mighty seitan – now there’s a food that deserves worshipping!

You will need about ¼ of the seitan to make two large pasties. Therefore if you have enough pastry and gravy, you could theoretically make eight pasties. I only made two so this is how many my recipe is for. The left over seitan freezes well or is great in a sandwich.

Whiz up the wheat gluten, black beans, Worcester sauce, mustard, oil, beef seasoning, garlic, ½ of the onion, the browning, pepper and water in a food processor until a smoothish paste is formed.

Add the gluten and whiz until combined into a dough.

Knead for 5 – 10 minutes either by hand or mixer. The longer you knead the more bite the “beef” will have.

Roll into a thick sausage shape and loosely wrap in tin foil. Place into a steamer on a low – medium heat for 45 minutes.

Leave to cool in the fridge overnight.

Cut off ¼ of the seitan and chop up into meaty chunks.

Fry in a little oil along with the remaining onions, just until the edges of the seitan starts to crisp and the onions start to go translucent.

Add the gravy granules and stir in enough water to make a thick gravy. Once bubbling, turn off the heat.

Roll out the pastry into 2 rectangles of equal size. Spoon the filling over one half of each rectangle, leaving a 2 cm gap around the edges. Fold the clean halves over the top of the filling and use the back of a fork to press down the edges in order to seal the pasties.

I think I’ve managed to create a pretty decent vegan alternative, although I have named my version a “slice” so that my friend from Plymouth doesn’t beat me up. Apparently a pasty has to be pasty shaped, NOT a rectangle. Also, a pasty should be made from short-crust pastry… so “slices” it is!

The majority of what I eat is created from scratch. However when it comes to puff pastry, I can’t see the point in wasting all that effort and energy when you can just buy a packet of “JusRol”: http://www.jusrol.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=6It’s tasty, fast and vegan friendly. Not to mention fool proof!

So here you have it, my soya and nut-free “cheese” and onion slice recipe:

Finely dice the onion and fry in a little bit of oil until translucent. Add to the potato-cauli mixture and stir in by hand.

Un-roll out the pastry so it is flat on your work surface. Cut into equal halves.

Imagine a line down the centre of each pastry half. Spoon half the filling onto one side of each pastry half, leaving a clean edge on three sides (refer to picture if that makes no sense!).

Brush the clean edges with a little milk.

Fold the filling-less side of the pastry over the filled side and press the edges together with the back of a fork.

Brush each slice with a little milk and put into the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

It’s Saturday night and I wanted a treat so I served our slices up with chips and beans rather than my usual multi-veg combo. I am secretly chuckling to myself because my Besty will be HEAVING when she sees this photo – she hates beans with a passion, heh heh heh!